


Rule of the heart

by Sol_Invictus



Series: The red fox and the golden dove [1]
Category: The Borgias
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-21
Updated: 2013-05-21
Packaged: 2017-12-12 13:19:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/812011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sol_Invictus/pseuds/Sol_Invictus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Ascanio Sforza, even love wasn't real.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rule of the heart

**Author's Note:**

> I rewrote it because I am now far more comfortable with English than I was back then.

Ascanio Sforza never let his heart rule. Emotions were dangerous things in the Vatican. He had learned it the hard way since he was a little boy. No matter what you did or said, people would always betray you. In the end, you were alone and surrounded by wolves. All was illusion and empty promises.

His own family wasn’t real. It was just a group of power-thirsty idiots. This Church wasn’t real either. Just a bunch of bickering cardinals, really. And love… Love wasn’t real as well. Love existed in books and songs but not in real life. It was a poisonous mirage. And yet everyday Ascanio saw fools fall in disgrace in the name of love. The only fool he had ever pitied was Lucrezia Borgia. A golden dove promised to a wolf. This marriage would end in tragedy.

Yet he had been surprised by the strength of the woman Lucrezia had become when he had saw her again. He had never noticed the steel in her before. But she was still looking for love.

_Poor, poor little dove._

Now she was a princess and a true Borgia: strong, free and fierce in her own way. Ascanio couldn’t help but be impressed. A Borgia with a gentle heart: the cardinal never thought he would see that one day. His interest in her grew bigger each day.

_But was it really interest?_ whispered a little voice in his head.

It was purely political, really. Yes, she had the beauty of a goddess but she was a _Borgia_ and Ascanio must keep an eye on every Borgia. What he felt in his heart when she looked at him wasn’t real.

_It wasn’t real._

He was imagining things. Surely she didn’t smile at him.

_It wasn’t real._

She didn’t try to touch him.

_It wasn’t real._

All was illusion and empty promises. It _couldn’t_ be real.

And yet when Lucrezia’s sweet lips met his own in this dark and quiet confessional, Ascanio Sforza couldn’t help listening to this little voice telling him that yes, _it was real._


End file.
